Saturday, September 2, 2017

Violence
in politics today

President
Trump is by no means the only person who tries to equate violence on
the right to violence on the left. Many newspaper columns tell us
that the neo-Nazis, white supremacists, anti-Semites, anti-Muslims,
KKK and other splinter groups on the far right are not significantly
different from splinter groups on the far left. Both, we are told,
use of violence as a political tactic.

This
equivalence is deceptive and is meant to deceive. Violence on the
right is different from violence on the left. Neo-Nazi and neofascist
ideologies openly profess to admire German Nazis who murdered
mentally ill citizens, citizens with limited abilities, homosexuals,
Romas also known as "Gypsies", Jews, labor unionists,
Communists and others. The Nazi ideology that neo-Nazis profess to
admire does not hesitate to kill human beings. Theirs is a murderous
violence as illustrated most recently in Charlottesville, only the
most recent murder committed by right-wing neo-Nazis. It does not
respect human life. It does not respect people of different
persuasions but is willing to assassinate those who disagree.

Some
left-wing groups--they often call themselves "anti-fascist"
or also "anarchist,"--are willing to engage in violence.
But this is a very limited kind of violence. Quite explicitly it
excludes harming human beings and is limited to destruction of
property, to disrupting traffic, to engaging in fist fights with
police and so-called "alt right" groups.

Claiming
that far left and far right groups are really the same because both
employ violent tactics confuses different kinds of violence, it
erases the difference between at most throwing a punch, on one hand,
and driving a truck into a crowd of people to kill random
pedestrians, on the other.

Confusing
these very different kinds of violence legitimates right-wing
militias, some of whom showed up in Charlottesville armed to the
teeth, and at the same time delegitimizes left-wing groups who
appreciate the grave danger these right-wing militias and admirers of
German Nazism constitute and are willing to oppose them with their
fists.

In
addition, the equivalence between the left and right violence serves
also to delegitmate Anarchists who are an important component of the
far left. Anarchism is a long established political movement that
aims all its efforts to struggle against the many different forms of
coercion in our societies. The anarchist ideal is a society where
coercion is at an absolute minimum. What each person wants for his or
her life, anarchists assert, should be the main determining factor of
what happens in that life. In pursuing this ideal, anarchists point
out to the very many situations where citizens in our society are
forced to live their lives in ways they have not chosen.

The
groups that are most powerful in our society have always tried to
make the anarchists look as dangerous, unreasonable persons. In the
interest of maintaining their own coercive power and making it look
as if it were a version of a free society, distorting the message of
anarchism has been an important tactic.

But
the anarchist message needs to be taken seriously. In the last two or
three years many white people have begun to understand how persons of
color live day to day in a state of siege. In their communities they
are stopped and frisked. The police that is supposed to protect them
more often murders them. Excessive numbers of people of color end up
in prison and once discharged from prison are often unable to find
work.

White
women as much as black are forced to work for lower pay than men.
More often than not they are not only breadwinners, as are the men
and their family, but they also are mothers and housekeepers –
projects their husbands or boyfriends often participate in only
minimally. A very large media apparatus forces on them bizarre
standards of beauty as well as the obligation to make themselves
attractive to men even when they themselves are not interested in
that.

For
anyone in this society whether a person of color or white, female or
male, the laws supposedly made at the behest of citizens are enforced
by heavily armed police. The power of the government is backed by the
power to injure and kill.

Nor
is that the end. Employers have tremendous power over their
employees, even at times of full employment. Landlords have power
over their tenants. Schools impose their rules and lessons by force
and under the threat of punishment and even expulsion. The poor
receive some public support and pay for that by constant supervision
from the courts and social workers.

Wherever
you turn in the society there is someone telling you what to do and
forcing you to pay attention.

Is
that "the land of the free"? The anarchists say "no."
Instead of listening to the calumnies of those who compare them to
white supremacists and neo-Nazis, we need to listen carefully to what
anarchists say and enter the struggle to defend what little freedoms
we have left in a world of constant coercion.